Giants personnel on brink of return

THE potential return of one of his forward powerhouses has Geelong West Giants co-coaches Mitch Wight and Matthew Iannelli in high spirits ahead of Saturday’s clash with North Geelong.

Wight stated that Giants forward Blake Dye could return to Geelong West’s line-up as early as weekend against the Magpies, marking his debut game for the 2023 season on the back of a 76-goal effort in 2022.

Dye, who has missed the first seven rounds of the Geelong & District Football League season due to injury, arrives on the brink of good health at an opportune time of the season, with the Giants to take on 11th placed North Geelong in Round 8 on Saturday, 7th placed Werribee Centrals in Round 9 after the bye week, and 10th placed Belmont in Round 10 over the next month.

“We’re hopeful Blake will play this week, which would be his first game of the year,” Wight said.

“Obviously that would be a massive morale booster for the guys to have their leading goal-kicker from last year come back in.

“Mat Hebbard could potentially be back after the bye, which would be for Werribee, after playing just two games this season before his injury.

“Our reigning best-and-fairest winner in Thomas Burke has missed the past two games with injury as well, he could be back after the bye alongside one of our starting on-ballers in Will Hoye.

“So we could have some personnel back in the next couple weeks.”

Despite being a natural backman, Giants captain Justin Carey has taken on the scoring load for Geelong West the past few weeks.

Carey failed to hit the scoreboard against Bannockburn but kicked five and six goals against Winchelsea and Corio respectively in the previous two rounds.

Geelong West are coming off a 17-point loss to reigning premiers Bannockburn to slot them just one win out of the top five with three wins and four losses, but Wight is adamant is side is capable of stringing together four quarters of football.

“We were forced to change our hand against Banno over the weekend, so we had to make some changes, but the message moving forward doesn’t really change, consistency,” Wight added.

“Lately getting that full four-quarter effort has been difficult, but there are certainly not any easy games, it’s probably the closest the GDFL has been in my time in it.

“Every game is super important here on in, but we go out there to win every time. The next month is super important in the context of the season, and with a few returns coming in, I’m confident we can give it a real shake.”

Harry Fraser and Michael Leamer each led in goal-kicking for the Giants last round against Bannockburn with two majors each.